Exiled Villainess: They Threw Me Out, Now Every Beastman Wants Me novel Chapter 89

Chapter 89: The Fox’s Final Gambit

Kiri joined the females heading towards the lake to wash. Tera waddled along with them, her growing belly leading the way, and Kiri watched her with a hatred so intense it felt like acid in her throat.

Everything Kiri wanted—Xavi’s attention, the clan’s respect, carrying his cub—this shiftless creature had stolen simply by existing.

At the lake, the females spread out along the bank. The males settled at a distance, also washing themselves.

Kiri washed, disgruntled that morning as the hunting party had left earlier to look for meat. There was still time for her to go after them.

Soon enough, when she noticed that everyone was distracted, she slinked off. Kiri then turned into her fox form as she got out of the lake and vanished into the undergrowth.

Nobody saw her leave. The males were still talking, and the females were still washing, mostly distracted by the screeching cubs. Even Tera, who had been keeping watch earlier, had her back turned as a cub pestered her.

Kiri ran in the direction the males had gone, their scent still faint in the air.

Her heart pounded with the intoxicating rush of freedom.

She was so sick of being watched, so sick of performing, and so sick of the constant, crushing weight of a lie she couldn’t sustain.

She ran faster, her fox form slicing through the undergrowth, her mind churning with fury.

This was all that shiftless creature’s fault. Before Tera arrived, Kiri had been secure. She had Xavi’s attention, and she had time. Now she had nothing.

The fox kept running until her chest ached.

Then she stopped. The evening sky shocked her. She didn’t know how long she had been running, and the forest looked different here.

The trunks were massive and gnarled. The canopy above was so thick that the light barely penetrated, and it cast everything in a deep, greenish gloom. The air was heavier, and there was a smell that made the fur along Kiri’s spine rise.

It was a sour, rotten sweetness. Like fruit left to decay in stagnant water, mixed with something metallic and wrong.

Kiri’s ears flattened against her skull.

That smell...

She had been so consumed by her anger that she hadn’t been paying attention to where she was running.

She had gone too far. Much too far.

Kiri’s body went rigid when she saw the corrupted monster sleeping through the bushes in front of her.

The peace and safety of the settlement had made her careless. She had forgotten, in the warm comfort of shelters and cooking fires and petty schemes, that this world was not safe.

The corrupted monster was not as large as the one that had raided her former clan, but it looked just as disgusting. Its body was a grotesque mass of scales, muscles and jutting bones. Its thick hide was mottled green and grey, and each exhale sent a plume of foul air rippling through the vegetation. The plants in the direction of its breath blackened and withered.

Every instinct in her body screamed at her to run, but her training held. Being a fox, speed and agility were her advantage. She could still escape without waking it up. But some corrupted monsters were faster than foxes, and no one could tell the specific trait certain monsters had.

Kiri began to back away, one silent paw at a time, her eyes never leaving the sleeping creature.

She was almost clear of the undergrowth when a voice shattered the silence.

"KIRI!"

The call echoed through the trees. It was distant but clear, and Kiri’s blood froze in her veins.

That was Tera’s voice.

The corrupted monster’s eyes opened.

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